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Topic: Dealing with the people who think they might want to be your new client. Almost. (Read 5220 times)

There's a great little parable over at 43Folders that goes straight to heart of an issue that confronts most businesspeople at one time or another: how to deal with the dreaded Biz Flirt. Y'know, the guy that hints he'd absolutely love to do business with you? It's just "there's a few minor questions and things we'll need to get clear on first" before you do?

Anybody who ever wasted an hour on the phone or the price of lunch on one of these people - or has blown an entire evening doing up a complex technical quote for a project that somehow never quite got off the ground - will find a lot to laugh and grimace about.

It took me a long time to not start consulting on a project before I was actually hired to do so.

Now, being older and wiser (and sphincter-dilated), I just sit, ask a lot of questions, and take notes. When the prospective client is finished I say:

Just so I'm sure I'm clear on what you're asking (then recap the problem as given).

When they agree I've "got it," I then say:

I can take care of that for you. My rate is $___ and it will take approximately X hours to complete. (If materials or equipment costs factor into the solution I'll also give a ballpark estimate on what they usually cost with the caveat it's subject to getting actual pricing from the suppliers.)

Finally, I'll say: I can begin on <date>. Does all this fit within your budget and timeframe?

Within 10 seconds, one of three things will happen:

The prospect will tell me "I'll have to get back to you." and wrap up the meeting. About 50% of the time they will call me back. Sometimes they'll also tell me they're looking at other quotes - which is something I encourage them to do whenever they bring it up. (From my experience, the people that tell me that end up calling me back about 70% of the time. Yay!)

The prospect will say "It's too expensive." at which point I'll need to decide if I want to negotiate or further pursue the project. About 75% of the time I won't, in keeping with the Principle of Indifference pricing model. How to handle that remaining 25% that I do decide to further pursue is a complex topic best left for a whole separate discussion.

The prospect says "That will be fine. Send us a hardcopy of what we've just discussed." At which point we shake hands and I feel fairly certain that what we talked about will actually happen. (It doesn't always.)

Note: until you have a signed purchase order or letter of intent in hand, you don't have the assignment. And until the client's final check clears, you can't really say you got the job. I could write volumes about that little detail. )

I've never been stiffed on any large project. 'Big' and 'large' being relative since I've never been involved with anything that I billed out a $100 million either! (But I'd like to... ). People that commit to the $20-$30K+ projects are usually good at their word, with or without a signed contract.

I've not gotten stiffed on programming projects i was hired to do, but there have been a few times where my own hubris and bad judgement has led me to spend dozens and dozens of hours on a prototype or early work for a project that never materialized.